Late-modern rehabilitation

Abstract

In a number of recent analyses, rehabilitation has been portrayed as a casualty of processes of penal transformation, coming to be frequently characterized as 'dead' or 'irrelevant'. This article takes issue with such a characterization in the specific penal context of England & Wales, and seeks to explain why rehabilitation is currently enjoying a renewed legitimacy. The central argument is that rehabilitation, in this jurisdiction, has adapted and survived into the 21st century by transforming and re-marketing itself in important ways. Central to this transformative process has been a successful appeal to three dominant 'late modern' penal narratives: utilitarian, managerial and expressive. It is argued that in the contemporary (Anglo-Welsh) penal context, rehabilitation enjoys legitimacy to the extent that it is compatible with each of these narratives.